1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to item/document reader/sorters of the type capable of optical character recognition (OCR) as well as magnetic ink character recognition (MICR).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art item/document reader/sorter apparatus generally employ an elongated main track or item guideway provided with a plurality of item receiving pockets, bins or receptacles opening angularly outwardly away from the main guideway and only on one side thereof. The selection of pockets, bins or receptacles is accomplished by means of a gate mechanism which remains open to provide a straight through pathway for the sorted items or is moved sideways to divert the item or items out of the main stream, track or guideway and into the selected pocket or receptacle. In order to accommodate a large volume of different items to be sorted to different pre-selected locations, amounts, accounts, etc., it is necessary to increase the length of the receptacle or pocket area of the apparatus. Ultimately, this results in an elongated-train-like grouping of pocket receptacles one after the other creating an unwieldly length and making it difficult for an operator to expeditiously monitor and handle the flow of items therethrough.
It is an important object therefore of the present invention to reduce the length of the overall track employed with item reader/sorters by at least fifty percent effectively increasing the operator monitoring capability and ease of operation.
It is still a further object of the invention to reduce the transport mechanism by fifty percent effectively reducing the overall cost of the sorting apparatus.
Still another important object of the invention is to provide a front and back stacking mechanism for an item reader/sorter wherein both the floor area of occupancy of the apparatus is generally reduced as well as the noise level of the sorting mechanism employed therewith.